Today, despite the whip having been dropped to one line, I will very definitely be voting against allowing prisoners the right to vote.
The option to allow prisoners the vote, is being forced upon us by the European Court of Human Rights. So, what exactly is the European Court going to do to us if we don't comply? Throw us out of Europe? That would be a blessing, but somehow I don't think so. The chatter is that if we reject it now, it will come back within the year and we will be forced, as a result of some legal ruling or other against us, to vote despite our heavy heart.

That just isn't going to happen. Some of us feel very strongly about rapists, robbers and drug dealers being given a vote to decide who they would like to make the law. And I am not the only one. I think I will be walking through the Noe lobby with quite a few of my colleagues today.